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Archive for the ‘The State of The Bookcase’ Category

My monthly wrap-up is going to be a bit different than in the past. Instead of listing books in the order I read them throughout the month I’m starting with my recommendations and ending with the DNFs. I’m also including the highlights from Marcia’s Kindle Corner.

The ‘Recommended Reads’

Title: Killer Weekend (1st in the Sheriff Walt Fleming series)
Author/website: Ridley Pearson
384 pages
Publisher: Jove
Publication date: June ’08
Genre: Suspense/thriller
I was offered Mr. Pearson’s newest, Killer Summer, as a review book. Knowing that it is the third in a series I wanted go back and read the first two. Killer Weekend is that first book and a good start to a new series. Sheriff Walt Fleming is just your ordinary guy who happens to head a police department in the playground for rich ~ Sun Valley, ID. He has his share of flaws and faults. And the personal tension between Walt and Deputy Brandon – delicious. The plot line is good and it’s nice to be outdoors in the wilds of Idaho instead of some asphalt city jungle.

Eight years ago, Sun Valley, Idaho, sheriff Walt Fleming bravely thwarted an attempt on Attorney General Elizabeth Shaler’s life. Now AG Shaler is back in town, poised to announce her candidacy for president at a three-day conference catering to the world’s most prominent business leaders. The event is the brainchild of Patrick Cutter, a tycoon whose sybaritic lifestyle is a source of both scorn and awe. (He is but one example of the super-rich citizenry that’s taken up residence in the once-quiet ski town.) There is no shortage of security for the proceedings–local police, Secret Service, and Cutter’s own team–but it’s not enough to deter a cunning assassin who slips seamlessly between a pair of identities. (His blind-man act is particularly impressive.) Meanwhile, Sheriff Fleming must cope with the suspicious death of a beautiful socialite and the breakup of his own marriage; it doesn’t help matters that his deputy is sleeping with his ex-wife.

Title: Killer View (2nd in the Sheriff Walt Fleming series)
Author/website: Ridley Pearson
496 pages
Publisher: Jove
Publication date: June ’08
Genre: Suspense/thriller
Killer View is the follow-up to Killer Weekend. The plot line in Killer View is stronger than Killer Weekend and more interesting. Sheriff Walt Fleming and the gang are back in some serious action. Walt is playing a game of cat and mouse with some nut jobs determined to make a name for themselves and his best friend’s life is on the line. Things are heating up in Sun Valley, ID and environs. Walt’s on the clock and time is ticking away. Once again we get to view this flawed man, Sheriff Fleming, who is trying his best to keep things running smoothly and keep it together. I suggest you read Killer Weekend before Killer View so that you’re familiar with the repeating characters and relationships.

The rich and famous may regard Sun Valley, Idaho, as a retreat from reality, but for Sheriff Walt Fleming, there is no such escape. In Killer Weekend (2007), the first installment in Pearson’s latest series, Sheriff Fleming earned respect and a certain amount of celebrity when he saved the U.S. attorney general’s life. This time around, trouble hits much closer to home, when the brother of Fleming’s best friend, Mark, is killed during the search for a missing skier. Mark disappears soon after, and it quickly becomes clear these were not random acts. But Walt is at a loss as to what could have befallen Mark, a highly regarded local veterinarian. A series of clues, including the smell of burning wool, leads Fleming to ranches in the remote Pahsimeroi Valley, where he finds pits filled with dead livestock. Then there’s news of contamination at a local water-bottling plant. Fleming has long had his eye on a radical group called the Samakinn. Could they be behind this? Or, fears Walt, is this trouble on a much larger scale?

Title: Killer Summer (3rd in the Sheriff Walt Fleming series)
Author/website: Ridley Pearson
367 pages
Publisher: Putnam Adult
Publication date: June ’09
Genre: Suspense/thriller
Killer Summer is the 3rd installment in the Killer series. Once again we meet up with Sheriff Walt Fleming and the gang in Sun Valley, ID ~ playground to the rich and famous. Some characters from Killer Weekend make appearances in Killer Summer and some from both earlier books aren’t here this time around. Mr. Pearson makes good use of his characters. While I don’t think that Killer Summer is as strong as Killer View in plot line, it is stronger than Killer Weekend and a good addition to the series. Once again Walt is the flawed guy we’ve come to love in this series. He may not always get it right but that just makes him more human. I like that he’s not this macho cop running rough shod over everyone. And the tension between Walt and Deputy Brandon just continues to build.

Oenophiles may seem like a mellow lot, but there’s nothing laid-back about the criminals who’ve descended upon Sun Valley, Idaho, during the exclusive enclave’s annual wine auction. In Pearson’s third mystery featuring amicable Sheriff Walt Fleming (after Killer View, 2008), the lawman finds himself at the mercy of master thief Christopher Cantell, who is dead set on stealing three very pricey bottles of wine. (They were reportedly a gift from Thomas Jefferson to John Adams. But might the whole vintage tale be an elaborate hoax?) An explosion at the glitzy gala sparks a grim chain of events: a colossal roadblock, a stolen jet, and the suspected kidnapping of Walt’s beloved nephew, Kevin. Sheriff Fleming quickly comes to realize Cantell has more than wine on his mind. Now he must keep the peace among Sun Valley’s well-heeled as he frets over the fate of his own flesh and blood.

Title: Somewhere in Time
Author/website: Richard Matheson
304 pages
Publisher: Tor Books
Publication date: July ’08 (reprint)
Genre: Fantasy
After a bit of rough start as I didn’t enjoy the storytelling style this book finished up much better than I expected. I really enjoyed Part Two where Richard and Elise meet and spend a brief period of time together in 1896.

Matheson’s classic novel tells the moving, romantic story of a modern man whose love for a woman he has never met draws him back in time to a luxury hotel in San Diego in 1896, where he finds his soul mate in the form of a celebrated actress of the previous century.

Title: Ghostwriter
Author/website: Travis Thrasher
348 pages
Publisher: FaithWords
Publication date: May ’09
Genre: Suspense/horror
Loved it! Another great edge-of-your-seat, pulse pumping, compulsive page turning suspense horror combination. Top loaded with suspense while walking the tight rope edge of horror. No outright gory scenes but he leaves plenty to a reader’s over active imagination. Another great addition to my suspense/horror favorite authors list.

For years Dennis Shore has thrilled readers with his spooky bestselling novels. Now a widower, Dennis is finally alone in his house, his daughter attending college out of state. When he’s stricken by a paralyzing case of writer’s block and a looming deadline, Dennis becomes desperate. Against better judgment, he claims someone else’s writing as his own, accepting undeserved accolades for the stolen work. He thinks he’s gotten away with it . . . until he’s greeted by a young man named Cillian Reed–the true author of the stolen manuscript.

What begins as a minor case of harassment quickly spirals out of control. As Cillian’s threats escalate, Dennis finds himself on the brink of losing his career, his sanity, and even his life. The horror he’s spent years writing about has arrived on his doorstep, and Dennis has nowhere to run.

Title: The King’s Favorite: A Novel of Nell Gwyn and King Charles II
Author/website: Susan Holloway Scott
448 pages
Publisher: NAL Trade
Publication date: July ’08
Genre: Historical fiction
While I usually enjoy Ms. Scott’s novels this isn’t one of my favorites. I think it has more to do with the period of England’s history than anything else. It seems that not everyone can live up the shenanigans of the Tudors. I do have The French Mistress loaded on my Kindle but now I’m not sure I’ll be reading it any time soon.

Nell Gwyn was never a lady, nor did she pretend to be one. The illegitimate daughter of a royalist soldier, she is taken to London by her widowed mother to work in a bawdy-house. At fourteen, she becomes the mistress of a wealthy merchant who introduces her to the world of the theater. Blessed with impudent wit and saucy beauty, she swiftly rises from an orange-seller to a leading lady. She is still in her teens when she catches the eye of King Charles II, and trades the stage for Whitehall Palace and the glorious role of a royal mistress.

Yet even as she delights the king, she must learn to negotiate the cut-throat royal court, where ambition and lust for power drive everyone rule the hearts of all around her. For beneath her charm and light-heartedness, Nell has her own ambition: to become no less than the king’s favorite.

Title: The Book of Unholy Mischief
Author/website: Elle Newmark
367 pages
Publisher: Atria
Publication date: December ’08
Genre: Historical fiction

It is 1498, the dawn of the Renaissance, and Venice teems with rumors of an ancient book that holds the secret to unimaginable power. It is an alchemist’s dream, with recipes for gold, immortality, and undying love. Everyone, rich and poor alike, speculates about the long-buried secrets scrawled in its pages and where it could possibly be hidden within the labyrinthine city. But while those who seek the book will stop at nothing to get it, those who know will die to protect it.

As a storm of intrigue and desire circles the republic that grew from the sea, Luciano, a penniless orphan with a quick wit and an even faster hand, is plucked up by an illustrious chef and hired, for reasons he cannot yet begin to understand, as an apprentice in the palace kitchen. There, in the lavish home of the most powerful man in Venice, he is initiated into the chef’s rich and aromatic world, with all its seductive ingredients and secrets.

Luciano’s loyalty to his street friends and the passion he holds for a convent girl named Francesca remain, but it is not long before he, too, is caught up in the madness. After he witnesses a shocking murder in the Palace dining room, he realizes that nothing is as it seems and that no one, not even those he’s come to rely on most, can be trusted. Armed with a precocious mind and an insatiable curiosity,

Luciano embarks on a perilous journey to uncover the truth. What he discovers will swing open the shutters of his mind, inflame his deepest desires, and leave an indelible mark on his soul.

Title: The Belly Dancer
Author/website: DeAnna Cameron
308 pages
Publisher: Berkley Trade
Publication date: July ’09
Genre: Historical fiction
I enjoyed The Belly Dancer. Pour yourself something to drink, pull up a comfy chair and settle in for a weekend of pleasurable reading.

At the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair, the modern, the exotic, and the ground-breaking collide. But Dora Chambers has more pressing matters to consider. Hoping to begin a life of wealth and privilege in Chicago, she sets out to earn the approval of the Fair’s Board of Lady Managers to appease her ambitious, aloof husband. Unimpressed, they give Dora the distasteful task of enforcing proper conduct at the Egyptian belly dancing exhibition.

But Dora’s sensibilities are not so easily flustered. She finds herself captivated by these exotic women, and by their enigmatic manager, Hossam Farouk, who makes his mistrust of her known—although his lingering glances hint at something else.

As Dora’s eyes are opened to the world beyond a life of social expectations and quiet servitude, she finds the courage to break free of her self-imposed bondage, and discovers the truth about the desire and passion in her own heart.

Title: Abandon
Author/website: Blake Crouch
416 pages
Publisher: Minotaur Books
Publication date: July ’09
Genre: Suspense/horror
Abandon is steeped in suspense, drenched in desperation and tinged with madness and horror. Highly recommended and not to be missed.

On Christmas Day in 1893, every man, woman and child in a remote mining town will disappear, belongings forsaken, meals left to freeze in vacant cabins, and not a single bone will be found–not even the gold that was rumored to have been the pride of this town will be found either. One hundred and thirteen years later, two backcountry guides are hired by a leading history professor and his journalist daughter to lead them into the abandoned mining town so that they can learn what happened. This has been done once before but the people that went in did not come out. With them is a psychic, and a paranormal photographer–the town is rumored to be haunted. They’ve come to see a ghost town, but what they are about to discover is that twenty miles from civilization, with a blizzard bearing down, they are not alone, and the past is very much alive….

The ‘Did Not Finishes’

Title: The Wet Nurse’s Tale
Author/website: Erica Eisdorfer
272 pages
Publisher: Putnam Adult
Publication date: August ’09
Genre: Historical fiction
I didn’t finish this one stopping at pg 56. I just never got engaged with the story.

A bawdy young woman who could easily have walked off the pages of The Canterbury Tales, Susan ends up wet-nursing after getting unexpectedly and illicitly pregnant, and her alcoholic and abusive father forces her to leave her child and take up the occupation. Her journey into the intimate lives of England’s upper crust proves an illuminating and dangerous one as Susan jumps from family to family—until her father sells her son. As Susan attempts to balance other peoples’ babies with her quest to regain her own, she is faced with difficult choices between duty and love, and between her life and her child’s. Whether she is carousing in the Jewish quarter or planning how to reclaim her son, Susan navigates the stratified social world with humorous vigor.

Title: The Link: Uncovering Our Earliest Ancestor
Author/website: Colin Tudge and Josh Young
272 pages
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Publication date: May ’09
Genre: Non-fiction
I didn’t finish this one reading only 73 pages. I knew there would be scientifc information but this book is heavy on the science and geology side of things. I felt like I was back in college attending class.

A secret until now, the fossil – “Ida” to the researchers who have painstakingly verified her provenance – is the most complete primate fossil ever found. Forty-seven million years old, Ida rewrites what we’ve assumed about the earliest primate origins. Her completeness is unparalleled – so much of what we understand about evolution comes from partial fossils and even single ones, but Ida’s fossilization offers much more than that, from a haunting “skin shadow” to her stomach contents. And, remarkably, knowledge of her discovery and existence almost never saw the light of day.

For No One You Know and The Embers here’s why I DNF’d them: I’m finding lately that introspective, soul searching family stories just aren’t capturing my imagination and engaging me like they used to. While the writing and the stories themselves are fine there isn’t enough of a ‘hook’ to draw me in and keep my reading attention. Usually I’m out in left field and in the minority with these types of books so please take what I write here with a large grain of salt. They are getting good reviews at Amazon.

Title: No One You Know
Author/website: Michelle Richmond
352 pages (DNF’d at page 71)
Publisher: Bantam
Publication date: May ’09
Genre: Fiction

Ellie Enderlin has never recovered from the unsolved murder of her sister, Lila, a Stanford math prodigy, some 20 years earlier. The day her sister went missing has become “the touchstone from which all other events unfurled.” Compounding the tragedy is the fact that her English professor, the person to whom she confided some of her most intimate feelings about her shy, private sister, has turned the tragedy into a best-selling true-crime book. To have those moments turned into fodder for the public’s voyeuristic appetite has felt like another violation. When Ellie, a world traveler and coffee buyer, meets up unexpectedly with the brilliant mathematician implicated in her sister’s murder, she sees it as a way to wrest back control of her own narrative and solve the crime.

Title: The Embers
Author/website: Hyatt Bass
304 pages (DNF’d at page 37)
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.
Publication date: June ’09
Genre: Fiction

As Emily Ascher plans her wedding, years after her older brother Thomas died in his teens, she still talks to him and wants to be married where his ashes were scattered. The grief felt by Thomas’ now-divorced parents, Joe and Laura, is compounded by Joe’s guilt for his part in his son’s death. Flashbacks work forward from 1992, revealing family relationships: the ongoing mother-daughter conflict between Laura and Emily, Joe’s ups and downs as a playwright and actor and his affair that ends the marriage, and eventually the circumstances of Thomas’ death.

***

Here are the July highlights from Marcia’s Kindle Corner. All of these books are recommended reads and have both print and, of course, Kindle editions. If not for sample chapters from Amazon for Kindles I wouldn’t have discovered these new-to-me authors and their wonderful books. If you want to check out all the books I sampled this month be sure and stop by the Corner.

Title: Soul Identity (Kindle link) / Soul Identity (print link)
Author/website: Dennis Batchelder
File size: 528KB/Print: 268 pages
Publication date: November ’07
Genre: Fiction
Sample size: Prologue, Ch. 1 except for the about the last 2 or 3 paragraphs
Soul Identity is a touch rough around the writing edges but not by much. This is a debut novel for this author and the first in a trilogy. I really enjoyed Soul Identity and I’m looking forward to reading his 2nd book, Soul Intent.

You can’t take it with you…but what if you could? Most people believe their souls outlive their bodies. Most people would find an organization that tracks their souls into the future and passes on their banked money and memories compelling. Scott Waverly isn’t like most people. He spends his days finding and fixing computer security holes. And Scott is skeptical of his new client’s claim that they have been calculating and tracking soul identities for almost twenty-six hundred years. Are they running a freaky cult? Or a sophisticated con job? Scott needs to save Soul Identity from an insider attack. Along the way, he discovers the importance of the bridges connecting people’s lives.

Title: Footfalls (Kindle link) / Footfalls (print link)
Author/website: Eddie Gresham
File size: 556 KB/Print: 402 pages
Publication date: Jan ’08 (paper edition Dec ’07)
Genre: Suspense/horror(?)
Sample size: Prologue and Ch.1-10
If you hear the unexplainable when you lay your ear against your pillow at night you’d better be prepared for what comes next! I loved it start to finish. A really good debut novel for this author.

Jimmy Culver is a computer technician who moves back to his hometown to start a new phase of his life. He has a new job working alongside his best friend, and catches the eye of a pretty divorcee in his neighborhood. Everything seems to be going well for Jimmy – but looks aren’t everything. One night, as Jimmy is falling asleep, a soft, familiar sound creeps into his ear. It is a sound from Jimmy’s childhood – one he had long-forgotten, as his mind pushed the terrifying events of a cold winter 30 years in the past deep into the recesses of his memory. Jimmy’s life is suddenly turned upside down as he races to figure out the secret behind the sounds. He is pushed to the edge as he struggles to keep up with his new job, a new love interest, and a new nightmare that is making its way down his street, toward his house. Jimmy finds some kindred spirits who are willing to help, but they too have secrets. Secrets that may endanger his life. Jimmy needs to figure it out – fast. The sounds are getting closer…and death follows.

Title: The Blue Mosaic Vase (Kindle link) / The Blue Mosaic Vase (print link)
Author/website: Christie Shary
File size: 498 KB/Print: 352 pages
Publication date: January ’02
Genre: Fiction
Sample size: Ch. 1-8 & most of Ch. 9
Another hidden gem lost among the thousands of books at Amazon. An unexpected wonderful love story.

Left with only the beautiful blue mosaic vase, a gift he once gave his mother, Mohammad begins his quest for identity, love and belonging. And just as the fragile and intricate pieces of the vase fit together, so Mohammad’s “coming of age” intertwines with the lives of these women, set against the ancient rhythms of Tehran’s bazaar, the desolate mud-brick villages of turn-of-the-century Persia, the impact of Islam upon their lives. Mohammad first explores his world in the footsteps of his mother, Pargol, victim of the bazaar’s harshness and disease; next through his brother’s child bride, Feredeh, bound by ancient religious tradition; and by the suffering of the harlot, Leila, shackled by hunger into a life that has few options. He experiences life within the dark, liquid eyes of his first love, Sherine, forced by the solemn promise of her father to marry another; through his wife, the beautiful Amira, driven by gold and lust for one she cannot have; and from the pain of the little servant girl, Batool, imprisoned by her society and left with only one choice–to buy her disgrace in the murky waters of the jewb. Although disillusioned by the unfairness and cruelty that reign in his world, Mohammad is determined not to give up. His journey finally leads him to the widowed village weaver, Najmeh, who brings real meaning to his life. Filled with love and compassion, yet free and unbound as the shifting desert sands that surround her village, she answers only to herself. But will Mohammad find the strength to break the bonds that bind him? He knows he must.

The Blue Mosaic Vase is a Fresh Voices and EPPIE Award winner

Title: Haunts of the Heart (Kindle link) / Haunts of the Heart (print link)
Author/website: Barbara Scott
File size: 421 KB/Print: 268 pages
Publication date: May ’09
Genre: Historical/contemporary ficiton
Sample size: 1/2 of Ch. 1
Don’t let the first couple of chapters turn you away. There is more depth to this story than meets the eye. Once our ghosts start telling their story things heat up. I was more than pleasantly surprise by this one.

Haunts of the Heart features one woman’s search for why two ghosts inhabit her childhood home. The ghosts, Anthony and Neal died during the American Civil War, each under circumstances that neither fully understood. Deanna attempts to discover what is keeping them tied to her home and in doing so falls in love with Neal. But Neal’s secrets are as deep as those binding Anthony and while the truth will set each free, the truth is also what will tear their friendship apart and hurt them deeper than their own deaths have.

Taking June off was not only good for my hands and wrists but my reading benefited as well. I read 15 books, 5,246 pages and DNF’d two. There are no formal book reviews for June.

Title: The Angel’s Game
Author/website: Carkis Ruiz Zafon
470 pages
Publisher: Doubleday
Publication date: June ’09
Genre: Fiction
I found this book interesting. Not something I’d typically read. It was dark and a bit on the strange side. I wasn’t real taken with the ending. I’m debating reading The Shadow of the Wind. I’m thinking I’ll download the sample chapters to my Kindle, read those and then decide.

In an abandoned mansion at the heart of Barcelona, a young man, David Martín, makes his living by writing sensationalist novels under a pseudonym. The survivor of a troubled childhood, he has taken refuge in the world of books and spends his nights spinning baroque tales about the city’s underworld. But perhaps his dark imaginings are not as strange as they seem, for in a locked room deep within the house lie photographs and letters hinting at the mysterious death of the previous owner.

Like a slow poison, the history of the place seeps into his bones as he struggles with an impossible love. Close to despair, David receives a letter from a reclusive French editor, Andreas Corelli, who makes him the offer of a lifetime. He is to write a book unlike anything that has ever existed–a book with the power to change hearts and minds. In return, he will receive a fortune, and perhaps more. But as David begins the work, he realizes that there is a connection between his haunting book and the shadows that surround his home.

Title: The Known World
Author/website: Edward P. Jones
432 pages
Publisher: Amistad
Publication date: August ’06
Genre: Historical fiction
I didn’t finish reading this one only getting about halfway through (216 pages). Personally I think this book is a mess and you’ll no get recommendation from me to read it. It doesn’t make sense, very confusing. You spend your time reading in circles chasing story lines that have nothing to do with anything. I know it’s award winning book but honestly I can’t understand why.

Caldonia Townsend is an educated black slaveowner, the widow of a well-loved young farmer named Henry, whose parents had bought their own freedom, and then freed their son, only to watch him buy himself a slave as soon as he had saved enough money. Although a fair and gentle master by the standards of the day, Henry Townsend had learned from former master about the proper distance to keep from one’s property. After his death, his slaves wonder if Caldonia will free them. When she fails to do so, but instead breaches the code that keeps them separate from her, a little piece of Manchester County begins to unravel.

Title: The Marriage Bureau for Rich People
Author/website: Farahad Zama
291 pages
Publisher: Putnam Adult
Publication date: June ’09
Genre: Fiction
This is a debut novel for Mr. Zama. Though it is a bit rough around the edges I ended up really enjoying the story. It makes a good book to throw in the beach bag and enjoy a relaxing day reading.

A thriving arranged-marriage bureau in contemporary India resides at the heart of Zama’s charming debut. The customers who visit Mr. Ali’s bureau—a project he began in retirement to pass the time—are mostly pragmatists: they look for mates based on height, complexion, caste, economic status and religion. As business picks up, Mr. Ali, a Muslim, takes on a young assistant, Aruna, a poor Hindu girl, who helps him formulate happy unions. While the bureau prospers, Mr. Ali and his wife contend with their headstrong son, a human rights advocate who worries them constantly, and Aruna faces her dismal home life and a handsome young client who may want more from her than lists of potential matches.

Title: Valeria’s Last Stand
Author/website: Marc Fitten
259 pages
Publisher: Bloomsbury USA
Publication date: April ’09
Genre: Fiction
This was one of those books that I’m glad I read the author interview in the back of the book before getting too far into the story. The background provided by the author helped me understand what he wanted to achieve with his novel. I can’t say I enjoyed this one as it was all a bit weird. I liked Part One more than Part Two. I finished but it wasn’t memorable.

Life in an isolated Hungarian village is turned upside down by an unusual love affair in Fitten’s promising debut. In the small hamlet of Zivatar, 68-year-old Valeria is known by all as a cantankerous woman, quick to criticize everything from the produce at the market to the mayor’s lofty ambitions to lure foreign investors to the town. But a chance encounter one day with the elderly local potter—a man Valeria has known for years but never noticed—changes everything. The widower potter falls just as hard for Valeria, despite his relationship with Ibolya, the owner of the village’s only tavern. Unaccustomed to being smitten, Valeria tries to maintain her normal routine, but the village is in an uproar over this unlikely love triangle. The arrival of a traveling chimney sweep intent on bilking the townspeople sends another ripple through what was once a placid village.

Title: The Dead Man
Author/website: Joel Goldman
408 pages
Publisher: Pinnacle
Publication date: April ’09
Genre: Suspense/thriller
I’m a sucker for popular, mass market suspense thrillers. Books that hook me right from the start, take me on a great ride and leave me wanting more. So it was with The Dead Man by Joel Goldman. He could quickly became favorite of mine. I’m looking forward to reading more novels from Mr. Goldman’s back list.

Careful What You Dream. Milo Harper wants former FBI agent Jack Davis’ help. People in Harper’s study of the human brain are starting to die – and dying exactly in the very ways they have dreamed…Harper wants Jack to get to the truth and counter lawsuits aimed at the foundation. But when Jack investigates, the truth explodes: a serial killer is lurking inside one of the most advanced research facilities in the world. For Jack, the case will shatter illusions, raise ghosts, and take him onto both sides of the law – and into the path of a murderer’s terrifying rage.

Title: Annie’s Ghosts: A Journey Into a Family Secret
Author/website: Steve Luxenberg
358 pages
Publisher: Hyperion
Publication date: May ’09
Genre: Memoir
I love memoirs and Mr. Luxenberg’s is as good as any I’ve read. He takes a family secret that was so well hidden that he didn’t realize his mother had a sister until well into his adult life. Thread by thread he weaves together the story of an aunt that who was mysteriously institutionalized and never mentioned within family circles. It’s amazing how his mother kept this secret from those close to her yet others acquainted with the family knew. This story is sadly touching. By the time you’re done reading his aunt is lovingly brought to life and appropriately remembered in death.

Throughout her life, Luxenberg’s mother, Beth, reveled in her status as an only child. Then, a few years before her death in 1999—and utterly out of the blue—she admitted to having a mentally and physically disabled younger sister named Annie, who died in 1972. Beth’s failing health precluded Luxenberg and his siblings from learning any more. After Beth’s passing, Luxenberg set out in search of answers. His dual roles as reporter and son proved both blessing and curse; the journalist dug furiously for facts, while the son wondered if long-buried secrets were best kept that way. His questions were many: What prompted Annie’s commitment, at age 21, to Eloise Hospital, southeastern Michigan’s sprawling psychiatric facility? Why was there next to no record of her early years? Most baffling of all, why did Beth, two years Annie’s senior, refuse for so long to acknowledge her sibling’s existence? Armed with superb investigative skills and relentless determination, Washington Post senior editor Luxenberg tracked down remaining family and friends and interviewed an exhaustive list of experts who might shed light on Annie’s plight. Part memoir, part mystery, part history of the mental-health movement, Annie’s Ghosts is a fascinating account of a life lived in the shadows and a family beset by despair.

Title: Elvis Takes A Backseat
Author/website: Leanna Ellis
320 pages
Publisher: B&H Fiction
Publication date: January ’09
Genre: Fiction
Sweet with a certain charm but not anything new. It wasn’t difficult to tell how this one would turn out. Does have some Christian overtones but nothing preachy.

When Claudia, a 40-something Texas widow, holds a garage sale to offload some of her late husband’s belongings, she discovers a note he scribbled in the last days of his illness, asking her to return a bizarre three-foot bust of Elvis Presley to Memphis. Reluctantly, Claudia embarks on a return to sender road trip to Tennessee with her 60ish aunt, who knew Elvis personally, and a caustic teenage girl who is harboring a secret.

Title: Dragon House
Author/website: Dragon House/John Shors
347 pages
Publisher: NAL Trade
Publication date: September ’09
Genre: Fiction
Here it is plain and simple: I loved it! Personally I think you should read all his novels. And I’m looking forward to next May when I get my hands on an ARC of his next novel.

Dragon House tells the tale of Iris and Noah—two Americans who, as a way of healing their own painful pasts, open a center to house and educate Vietnamese street children. In the slums of a city that has known little but war for generations, Iris and Noah befriend children who dream of nothing more than of going to school, having a home, and being loved. Learning from the poorest of the poor, the most silent of the unheard, Iris and Noah find themselves reborn. Resounding with powerful themes of suffering, sacrifice, friendship, and love, Dragon House brings together East and West, war and peace, and celebrates the resilience of the human spirit.

Title: Saving the World (Maximum Ride, Book 3)
Author/website: James Patterson
416 pages
Publisher: Little, Brown Young Readers
Publication date: May ’07
Genre: Fantasy/YA
Rarely do I read YA fiction but this is one series I’m hooked on. I enjoy spending time with Max and company.

The time has arrived for Max and her winged “Flock” to face their ultimate enemy and discover their original purpose: to defeat the takeover of “Re-evolution”, a sinister experiment to re-engineer a select population into a scientifically superior master race…and to terminate the rest. Max, Fang, Iggy, Nudge, Gasman, and Angel have always worked together to defeat the forces working against them–but can they save the world when they are torn apart, living in hiding and captivity, halfway across the globe from one another?

Title: Perfection: A Memoir of Betrayal and Renewal by Julie Metz
Author/website: Perfection/Julie Metz
340 pages
Publisher: Voice
Publication date: June ’09
Genre: Memoir
I can’t say I enjoyed reading about someone else’s pain and loss but I didn’t put it down. At times she’s a bit too honest and provides more information than I needed to read.

As recounted in this dark and affecting memoir, Metz’s discovery of her husband’s long trail of philandering well after he died reveals the state of willful ignorance and comfortable self-deception that reigned in her marriage. At their home in the northern suburbs of New York City on June 8, 2003, Henry, her husband of 13 years, suffered sudden cardiac arrest, leaving the author, a 44-year-old graphic artist, widowed and the sole caretaker of their six-year-old daughter, Liza. Initially unable to face the details surrounding his death, she left to her friends the task of cleaning out her dead husband’s office, though those same well-meaning people hid from her the truth they gleaned from Henry’s computer files and correspondence: he had been enjoying a two-year affair with another woman in their town, as well as numerous other dalliances. Metz, after the shock of Henry’s death, found solace in shopping and flirting with a much younger artist, Tomas, who was also friendly with Henry; once Tomas intimated that Henry had another life, the author began digging, calling and e-mailing every woman she learned had had a relationship with her husband, obsessed with finding the truth.

Title: Still Life
Author/website: Joy Fielding
384 pages
Publisher: Atria
Publication date: March ’09
Genre: Fiction
Interesting premise for a story. It’s been a year or two since I read a novel by Joy Fielding and I enjoyed Still Life.

Casey Marshall has it all: a successful interior-design business; a handsome, loving husband; wonderful friends; and a boatload of family money at her disposal. But just as she’s contemplating starting a family, she’s the victim of a hit-and-run accident that leaves her in a coma. But she’s not completely out of it, so she’s a witness to everything that happens in her hospital room. But is that so bad? Isn’t it everyone’s dream to be a fly on the wall, to hear what might be said at our funerals? Even though Casey is privy to everyone’s “private” remarks and conversations as they visit, she feels trapped and helpless, especially when it becomes abundantly clear that the incident with the car was no accident. Her frustration mounts as her sister, the wayward but bighearted Drew, becomes a suspect, along with everyone close to her.

Title: While My Sister Sleeps
Author/website: Barbara Delinsky
336 pages
Publisher: Doubleday
Publication date: February ’09
Genre: Fiction
Interesting that I chose two books in row that dealt with women in comas (see Still Life above). I’m a fan of Ms. Delinsky’s novels and for the most part I enjoyed While My Sister Sleeps. I thought the blackmailing of Chris was an unnecessary plot line and didn’t add anything to the story.

An Olympic marathon contender, self-centered Robin Snow often rubs her younger sister, Molly, the wrong way. After many years in her sister’s shadow, Molly takes out her resentment with petty actions, such as refusing to accompany Robin on a run. Fatefully, Robin has a heart attack while training and falls into a coma. As Robin’s condition fails to improve, Delinsky digs tediously into the family’s woes: Molly’s touchy relationship with Robin’s ambitious reporter ex-boyfriend; middle son Chris’s dealings with a would-be blackmailer; mother Kathryn’s trouble coming to terms with Robin’s dire prognosis.

Title: The Blue Notebook
Author/website: James Levine
210 pages
Publisher: Spiegel & Grau
Publication date: July ’09
Genre: Fiction
I was hoping for something more or, maybe, something different. The story telling style of The Blue Notebook didn’t really appeal to me. I’m in the minority on this one.

The Blue Notebook brings us into the life of a young woman for whom stories are not just entertainment but a means of survival. Even as the novel humanizes and addresses the devastating global issue of child prostitution, it also delivers an inspiring message about the uplifting power of words and reading–a message that is so important to hold on to, especially in difficult times. Dr. Levine is donating all his U.S. proceeds from this book to help exploited children. Batuk’s story can make a difference.

Title: Relentless
Author/website: Dean Koontz
368 pages
Publisher: Bantam
Publication date: June ’09
Genre: Suspense
I’ve read almost every novel this man has written. I love his classic (older) novels and run hot and cold on his newer stuff – more suspense and less horror. His writing style has changed over the last few years and I’m still trying to adjust. While I enjoyed Relentless as with some of his more recent novels I thought the ending was ‘too easy’. That said I’ll buy Breathless when it’s released in November.

Bestselling author Cullen Cubby Greenwich is mortified when Shearman Waxx, the nation’s premier literary critic, savages his work. Cubby manages to find the syphilitic swine at Roxie’s Bistro in Newport Beach, Calif., where the author’s six-year-old prodigy son nearly pees by accident on Waxx in the restaurant’s men’s room. In retaliation, Waxx threatens Cubby with doom and gets things started nicely by blowing up his house. With almost superhuman ease, the book critic keeps track of Cubby and his family as they flee for their lives.

Title: Easy on the Eyes
Author/website: Jane Porter
332 pages
Publisher: 5 Spot
Publication date: July ’09
Genre: Women’s fiction
My least favorite JP novel. I never really warmed up to Tiana. I knew exactly where this story was headed before I’d read more than a few chapters – knew how we were going to get there and where we’d end up. Even the revelation wasn’t much of a surprise to me.

At 38, Tiana Tomlinson has made it. America adores her as one of the anchors of America Tonight, a top-rated nightly entertainment and news program. But even with the trappings that come with her elite lifestyle, she feels empty. Tina desperately misses her late husband Keith, who died several years before. And in a business that thrives on youth, Tina is getting the message that her age is starting to show and certain measures must be taken if she wants to remain in the spotlight. It doesn’t help that at every turn she has to deal with her adversary–the devilishly handsome, plastic surgeon to the stars, Michael Sullivan. But a trip away from the Hollywood madness has consequences that could affect the rest of her life.

Title: The Other Queen
Author/website: Philippa Gregory
448 pages
Publisher: Touchstone
Publication date: September ’08
Genre: Historical fiction
So even with the less than stellar reviews I really wanted to read The Other Queen. It’s been sitting on my Kindle since December of ’08 when I bought it to read on vacation. Never having gotten around to ‘cracking’ it open I decided it was time to give it a go. Boy oh boy were the other readers right – this isn’t her best work. I love PG’s other novels having reading several of them. I didn’t finish TOQ – DNF’d at page 147. Talk about repetitive storytelling. Every chapter is a rehash of the chapter before told from a different character’s POV. And not only are you a frustrated reader because of this but the two female characters keep constantly reminding you of their lofty positions. I just wanted shake some sense into these ladies and say ‘get on with it already’.

In 1568, after fleeing rebellious Scottish lords, Mary is placed into the custody of George Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury, and his wife, Bess of Hardwick. This turns their Derbyshire estate into a hotbed of intrigue and possible treason. George, normally loyal to a fault, falls in love with Mary; Bess secretly reports to William Cecil, Queen Elizabeth’s spymaster, while fretting about her foolish husband and the continual draining of their funds; Mary plays them against one another while plotting to escape, with Cecil noting her every move.

And a very short novella, Serial, by Jack Kilborn and Blake Crouch. It’s only 44 pages.

***
Favorite book: Dragon House by John Shors
Least favorite book: The DNFs – The Known World and The Other Queen

My usual bookcase picture has gone MIA so I decided to go with this cutie napping amongst the books. Summer is almost here and the books are piling up. TV shows, for the most part, are done and reading kicked into high gear mid-month. I read 11 books, 4,514 pages and DNF’d one. There are no formal book reviews for May.

Title: Mother of the Believers: A Novel of the Birth of Islam
Author/website: Kamran Pasha
527 pages
Publisher: Washington Square Press
Publication date: April ’09
Genre: Historical fiction
I enjoyed this book. Be warned though it is more on the historical side of the story than character based.

Deep in the desert of seventh century Arabia, a new prophet named Muhammad has arisen. After he beholds a beautiful woman in a vision and resolves to marry her, the girl’s father quickly arranges the wedding. Aisha becomes the youngest of Muhammad’s twelve wives and her feisty nature and fierce intelligence establishes her as his favorite. But when Aisha is accused of adultery by her rivals, she loses the Prophet’s favor—and must fight to prove her innocence.

Title: The Reincarnationist
Author/website: M.J. Rose
Pages: 464
Publisher: Mira
Publication date: October ’08
Genre: Contemporary/historical fiction
I really enjoyed this novel though the ending was a tiny bit of a letdown. I’m looking forward to reading the next novel in this series, The Memorist.

After a bomb explosion nearly kills photojournalist Josh Ryder, he begins experiencing flashbacks—or, perhaps, memories—of events that seem to have happened to him 1,600 years earlier, in another life. Convinced these episodes aren’t figments of his imagination, he enlists the aid of the Phoenix Foundation, a group that specializes in past-life research. Later, when he becomes involved in the unearthing of an ancient tomb—and experiences a connection with its long-buried resident—Josh realizes he has a chance to right a wrong that happened a millennium and a half ago, not to mention an opportunity to solve a series of modern-day murders.

Title: Rooftops of Tehran
Author/website: Mahbod Seraji
Pages: 368
Publisher: NAL Trade
Publication date: May ’09
Genre: Fiction
For me this book started a bit slow but I was more than hooked by the end.

Pasha Shahed is a typical teenage boy who likes hanging out with his friends on the rooftop terrace of his house, dreaming about life, love, and what the future holds. What makes this 17-year-old different is that he is living under the harsh reign of the shah in Iran during the summer of 1973. With his biggest worry being his feelings for Zari, the girl next door who has been promised to another since birth, Pasha has a rude awakening when the SAVAK, Iran’s secret police, hunt down and murder Zari’s fiancé. When Pasha realizes that he is the one who unwittingly gave away the man’s whereabouts to the SAVAK, he is crushed with guilt over his rival’s death and his continued feelings for Zari. No longer ignorant of the brutality of the shah’s regime, Zari makes a public display of her protest, which devastates Pasha.

Title: Promises in Death
Author/website: J.D. Robb
Pages: 352
Publisher: Putnam Adult
Publication date: February ’09
Genre: Police procedural
I love this series!

NYPD Lieutenant Eve Dallas always does her best to solve every one of her cases, but her latest assignment just might be her most difficult yet. Not only was the victim, Amarylis Coltraine, a cop who was killed with her own weapon, but the case also takes on an added personal dimension since Amarylis was Chief Medical Examiner Morris’ lover, and Morris is one of Eve’s best friends. When the killer sends Eve a package containing Coltraine’s badge, weapon, and a taunting note suggesting that she might be next on the list, Eve finds herself trying to untangle a case that may be linked to her own past.

Title: Nineteen Minutes
Author/website: Jodi Picoult
Pages: 464
Publisher: Atria
Publication date: March ’07
Genre: Fiction
My favorite after My Sister’s Keeper.

In Sterling, New Hampshire, 17-year-old high school student Peter Houghton has endured years of verbal and physical abuse at the hands of classmates. His best friend, Josie Cormier, succumbed to peer pressure and now hangs out with the popular crowd that often instigates the harassment. One final incident of bullying sends Peter over the edge and leads him to commit an act of violence that forever changes the lives of Sterling’s residents.

Title: Who Do You Think You Are: A Memoir by Alyse Myers
Author/website: Alyse Myers
Pages: 272
Publisher: Touchstone
Publication date: April ’09
Genre: Memoir
This memoir is depressing but I’m glad I read it.

Growing up during the 1960s in a working-class neighborhood in Queens, New York, Alyse’s home is not a happy one. Her parents argue constantly and after the death of Alyse’s father, her mother at age thirty-three is left with three young girls. While her mother retreats to the kitchen table with her cigarettes and bitterness, determined to stay there forever, Alyse yearns for more in life, including the right to escape. After a childhood of harrowing fights, abject cruelty, and endless uncertainty, Alyse adamantly rejects everything about her mother’s life, provoking her mother’s infuriated demand, “Who do you think you are?”

Title: In the Land of Invisible Women: A Female Doctor’s Journey in the Saudi Kingdom
Author/website: Qanta Ahmed
Pages: 464
Publisher: Sourcebooks, Inc
Publication date: September ’08
An absolutely fascinating and intriguing look at womens’ lives under Wahhabism, a reformist movement of Sunni Islam in the Saudi Kingdom.

Denied visa renewal in America, British-born Pakistani physician Ahmed, 31, leaves New York for a job in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where she celebrates her Muslim faith on an exciting Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca even as she encounters rabid oppression from the state-sanctioned religious extremist police. She is licensed to operate ICU machines in the emergency ward, but as a woman, she is forbidden to drive, and she must veil every inch of herself. Her witty insider-outsider commentary as a Muslim and feminist, both reverent and highly critical, provides rare insight into the upper-class Saudi scene today, including the roles of women and men in romance, weddings, parenting, divorce, work, and friendship. After 9/11, she is shocked at the widespread anti-Americanism. The details of consumerism, complete with Western brand names, get a bit tiresome, but they are central to this honest memoir about connections and conflicts, and especially the clamorous clash of “modern and medieval, . . . Cadillac and camel.”

Title: The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane
Author/website: Katherine Howe
Pages: 384
Publisher: Voice
Publication date: June ’09
Genre: Contemporary/historical fiction
While I enjoyed this book I wish the author had spent more time on the historical sections.

Harvard graduate student Connie Goodwin needs to spend her summer doing research for her doctoral dissertation. But when her mother asks her to handle the sale of Connie’s grandmother’s abandoned home near Salem, she can’t refuse. As she is drawn deeper into the mysteries of the family house, Connie discovers an ancient key within a seventeenth-century Bible. The key contains a yellowing fragment of parchment with a name written upon it: Deliverance Dane. This discovery launches Connie on a quest–to find out who this woman was and to unearth a rare artifact of singular power: a physick book, its pages a secret repository for lost knowledge.

As the pieces of Deliverance’s harrowing story begin to fall into place, Connie is haunted by visions of the long-ago witch trials, and she begins to fear that she is more tied to Salem’s dark past then she could have ever imagined.

Title: The Firemaster’s Mistress: A Novel
Author/website: Christie Dickason
Pages: 544
Publisher: Harper Paperbacks
Publication date: September ’08
Genre: Historical fiction
It was OK but nothing memorable.

Firemaster Francis Quoynt knew creating fireworks from gunpowder was dangerous, but he didn’t realize that politics could be even more deadly. Francis quickly discovers just how lethal working for the government can be when he is “hired” by English secretary of state Robert Cecil to help investigate rumors of a plot to murder King James I (Gunpowder Plot). Cecil believes Catholics in England are planning on trying to overthrow the Protestant monarch, and Francis’ mission is to do everything he can to help them. What Francis didn’t count on was that one of the conspirators would turn out to be glove-maker Kate Peach, and that if he succeeds in his plan, he could very well end up having the woman he loves killed.

Title: The Crimes of Paris: A True Story of Murder, Theft, and Detection
Author/website: Dorothy and Thomas Hoobler
Pages: 384
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Publication date: April ’09
Genre: Non-fiction
DNF’d after 114 pages
Normally this is the type of book I’d devour but I didn’t finish it. It started out with the crime and then got mired down in page after endless page of mind-numbing facts. I wish they would have continued with the crime and it’s solution weaving in these facts as needed to move this story along.

Turn-of-the-century Paris was the beating heart of a rapidly changing world. Painters, scientists, revolutionaries, poets–all were there. But so, too, were the shadows: Paris was a violent, criminal place, its sinister alleyways the haunts of Apache gangsters and its cafes the gathering places of murderous anarchists. In 1911, it fell victim to perhaps the greatest theft of all time–the taking of the Mona Lisa from the Louvre. Immediately, Alphonse Bertillon, a detective world-renowned for pioneering crime-scene investigation techniques, was called upon to solve the crime. And quickly the Paris police had a suspect: a young Spanish artist named Pablo Picasso….

Title: The Tory Widow
Author/website: Christine Blevins
Pages: 400
Publisher: Berkley Trade
Publication date: April ’09
Genre: Historical fiction
I enjoyed this book and I’m looking forward to reading the next two in this trilogy. A nice mix of history and romance with very likable characters.

On a bright May day in New York City, Anne Peabody receives an unexpected kiss from a stranger. Bringing news of the repeal of the Stamp Act, Jack Hampton, a member of the Sons of Liberty, abruptly sweeps Anne into his arms, kisses her—and then leaves her to her fate of an arranged marriage…

1775: Nearly ten years have passed and Anne, now the Widow Merrick, continues her late husband’s business printing Tory propaganda, not because she believes in the cause, but because she needs the money to survive. When her shop is ransacked by the Sons of Liberty, Anne once again comes face to face with Jack and finds herself drawn to the ardent patriot and his rebel cause.

As shots ring out at Lexington and war erupts, Anne is faced with a life-altering decision: sit back and watch her world torn apart, or stand and fight for both her country’s independence and her own.

Title: A World I Never Made
Author/website: James LePore
Pages: 262
Publisher: Story Plant
Publication date: April ’09
Genre: Suspense/thriller
Review coming June 15th

Pat Nolan is summoned from his Connecticut home to Paris after he is informed his only child Megan, a 29 year-old writer, has committed suicide in this well-plotted and briskly paced post 9/11 thriller. Nolan and his daughter have been estranged, and he could not have known that Megan was selling herself to wealthy and powerful men in all of Europe’s capitals and in Morocco. Nolan, still grieving the death of his wife during Megan’s birth, is asked to identify his child’s remains. The body is not Megan’s, though for some inexplicable reason, he says it is. Subsequently he learns Megan has left clever clues, indicating that she wants her father to find her. Nolan is assisted by the inevitably beautiful widow, French Det. Catherine Laurence, whose despised husband was conveniently killed in terrorist bombings only months before. The action moves from Paris to exotic and rugged locales spanning two continents.

***
Favorite books: The Reincarnationist & Nineteen Minutes
Least favorite book: The Crimes of Paris

***
Genres:
Contemporary/historical fiction – 5
Suspense/action/thriller – 1
Police procedural – 1
Memoir – 2
Fiction – 1
Non-fiction – 1

Total pages – 4,514

Challenges
eBook – 4
New author – 10
ARCs/Review copies – 7
’09 Pub – 8

***

Challenges (YTD)
eBook – 14/10 (Done!)
New author – 51/65
ARCs/Review copies – 47
’09 Pub – 32/9 (Done!)

April turned out to be memoir month. Out of the 13 books I made my way through 6 were memoirs with some historical fiction and police procedurals thrown in for a change of pace.  More in-depth thoughts for most of these books can be found in my Pondering the pages posts.

Title: A Silent Ocean Away
Author/website: DeVa Gantt
416 pages
Publisher: Avon
Publication date: October ’08
Genre: Historical fiction (romance)
I enjoyed this book which is the 1st in a trilogy. I’m looking forward to reading #2 – Decision and Destiny. Be forewarned that this book ends with lots of unanswered questions. You’ll definitely need to read the next book.

Title: The Hong Kong Connection, A Susanna Sloane Novel
Author/website: S.G. Kiner
264 pages
Publisher: Strategic Book Publishing
Publication date: November ’08
Genre: Suspense/thriller
I’m more thumbs down on this book than thumbs up. I really didn’t like any of the characters. I found them to very off-putting.

Title: On the Grind: A Shane Scully Novel
Author/website: Stephen J. Cannell
320 pages
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
Publication date: January ’09
Genre: Police procedural
A quick, fast-paced, thrilling ride through police corruption.

Title: Illegal
Author/website: Paul Levine
384 pages
Publisher: Bantam
Publication date: March ’09
Genre: Suspense/thriller
A new-to-me author I would definitely read again. Loved it from start to finish.

Title: The Midwife: A Memoir of Birth, Joy, and Hard Times
Author/website: Jennifer Worth
352 pages
Publisher: Penguin
Publication date: April ’09
Genre: Memoir
Loved it! A very interesting look at London’s East end in the 1950s thru the eyes of a midwife.

Title: How I Got to Be Whoever It Is I Am
Author/website: Charles Grodin
272 pages
Publisher: Springboard Press
Publication date: April ’09
Genre: Memoir
I DNF’d this book after 98 pages. One word: boring

Title: The Cellist of Sarajevo
Author/website: Steven Galloway
256 pages
Publisher: Riverhead
Publication date: May ’08
Genre: Fiction
Loved it! This book is a very moving look at the average person struggling to survive living in a war torn city.

Title: The Unlikely Disciple: A Sinner’s Semester at America’s Holiest University
Author/website: Kevin Roose
336 pages
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Publication date: March ’09
Genre: Memoir
Loved it! A very intriguing look into the heart of the largest Christian fundamentalist university in the United States.

Title: Crazy for the Storm: A Memoir of Survival
Author/website: Ollestad
288 pages
Publisher: Ecco
Publication date: June ’09
Genre: Memoir
I really enjoyed the chapters that dealt with his mountain ordeal. I didn’t enjoy as much the chapters pertaining to his childhood but they are essential to the story.

Title: Jantsen’s Gift: A True Story of Grief, Rescue, and Grace
Author/website: Pam Cope ~ Touch A Life Foundation
320 pages
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Publication date: April ’09
Genre: Memoir
Loved it! A family, especially a mother’s, incredible journey through grief to bring hope and life to children and families around the world through her’s son legacy.

Title: Picking Cotton: Our Memoir of Injustice and Redemption
Author(s)/website: Jennifer Thompson-Cannino, Ronald Cotton, and Erin Torneo
304 pages
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
Publication date: March ’09
Genre: Memoir
Loved it! A true story of forgiveness – forgiving others and forgiving yourself.

Title: The Wish Maker
Author/website: Ali Sethi
432 pages
Publisher: Riverhead
Publication date: June ’09
Genre: Fiction
I DNF’d this one after reading 44 pages. It never captured my interest.

Title: A Lucky Child: A Memoir of Surviving Auschwitz as a Young Boy
Author/website: Thomas Buergenthal
256 pages
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Publication date: April ’09
Loved it! While it’s tough subject matter to read about the author does a good job of relating his childhood years in death camps surviving unimangible atrocities.

Title: Royal Blood
Author/website: Rona Sharon
352 pages
Publisher: Kensington
Publication date: April ’09
Genre: Historical fiction
I DNF’d this book after reading 94 pages. I found it very tedious going.

Title: Outcasts United: A Refugee Team, an American Town
Author/website: Outcasts United
320 pages
Publisher: Spiegel & Grau
Publication date: April ’09
Genre: Memoir
Loved it! A heart warming memoir about displaced families starting over here in the States, the small town community that struggles to cope with the refugees and the game that brings them together.

Title: For the Love of Pete
Author/website: Julia Harper
400 pages
Publisher: Forever
Publication date: January ’09
Genre: Romance/chick lit
A fun beach or poolside read.

***
Favorite book: Just about any of the memoirs (I can’t pick just one)
Least favorite book: Any of the DNFs

***
Genres:
Historical fiction – 2
Suspense/action/thriller – 2
Police procedural – 1
Memoir – 8
Fiction – 2
Romance/chick lit – 1

Total pages – 4,146

Challenges
eBook – 1
New author – 15
ARCs/Review copies – 14
’09 Pub – 10

***
2009 progress
Total pages: 15,469
Books read: 46
DNFs: 8

Challenges
eBook – 9/10
New author – 39/65
ARCs/Review copies – 39
’09 Pub – 23/9 (Done!)

Spring is here and my reading is kicking into high gear. Of course it helped that I had 9 days of no distractions as my hubby went and worked the LPGA tournament in Phoenix. So for the month I read 15 books, had 2 DNFs and tore through 5,040 pages. More in-depth thoughts for most of these books can be found in my Pondering the pages posts.

Title: Shanghai Girls
Author/website: Lisa See
336 pages
Publisher: Random House
Publication date: May ’09
Genre: Historical fiction
I liked it but not as much as Snow Flower and Secret Fan and Peony in Love. This is much more modern and I really enjoy her books set in ancient China.

Title: Bahama Burnout (5th in the Mick Sever mystery series)
Author/website: Don Bruns
264 pages
Publisher: Oceanview Publishing
Publication date: March ’09
Genre: Mystery
A good, solid mystery. I look forward to reading more of this author’s work. What really a winning point with me was I didn’t have to read the other books in this series first before diving into this one. I usually like to read my series in order but I didn’t have that luxury with this series but I didn’t miss anything character-based.

Title: False Colours
Author/website: Georgette Heyer
352 pages
Publisher: Casablanca
Publication date: 1963
Genre: Regency romance
I’ve been advised not to judge Geogette Heyer’s work by this book but I didn’t finish. I put it down after 3 chapters.

Title: Meow is for Murder (4th in the Kendra Ballantyne mystery series)
Author/website: Linda O. Johnston
272 pages
Publisher: Berkley
Publication date: February ’07
Genre: Cozy mystery
I love this mystery series; lighthearted and fun

Title: The Fright of the Iguana (5th in the Kendra Ballantyne mystery series)
Author/website: Linda O. Johnston
256 pages
Publisher: Berkley
Publication date: October ’07
Genre: Cozy mystery
I love this mystery series; lighthearted and fun

Title: Mrs. Perfect
Author/website: Jane Porter
432 pages
Publisher: 5 Spot
Publication date: May ’08
Genre: Women’s/contemporary fiction
My favorite JP book. Much more than a beach read. She nails today’s issues with great insight and a touch of humor.

Title: Charmed to Death ( 2nd in the Bewitching Mysteries series)
Author/website: Madelyn Alt
304 pages
Publisher: Berkley
Publication date: December ’06
Genre: Cozy mystery
Another one of the many lighthearted and fun mystery series I enjoy.

Title: People of the Book
Author/website: Geraldine Brooks
384 pages
Publisher: Viking Adult
Publication date: January ’08
Genre: Historical/contemporary fiction
I thought this was a very good book until the ending. The ending didn’t ‘fit’ with the rest of the story. The historical chapters are absolutely fascinating. I would read other novels by this new-to-me author.

Title: First Family
Author/website: David Baldacci
464 pages
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Publication date: April ’09
Genre: Suspense/action/thriller
Another solid book in the Sean King/Michelle Maxwell series. One of the my favorite authors. I’ve read all his novels.

Title: Palace Circle
Author/website: Palace Circle
432 pages
Publisher: Broadway
Publication date: March ’09
Genre: Historical fiction
I found it a pleasant read; nothing to write home about. I believe it is the first in a new trilogy.

Title: BoneMan’s Daughters
Author/website: Ted Dekker
416 pages
Publisher: Center Street
Publication date: April ’09
Genre: Suspense/action/thriller
This is not a book for the faint hearted! His work has been labeled Christian fiction but there is nothing preachy about this book. After just one book he has become a favorite and I intend to work my way through his back list of suspense/thriller books.

Title: The Scarecrow
Author/website: Michael Connelly
448 pages
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Publication date: May ’09
Genre: Suspense/action/thriller
Not a Harry Bosch novel but every bit as good. I met up again with Jack McEvoy from The Poet. Mr. Connelly is another favorite author and I’ve read all his novels.

Title: Afraid
Author/website: Jack Kilborn
384 pages
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Publication date: March ’09
Genre: Horror
Plain and simple: you need a iron cast stomach to read this book. This one of those books where if you made into a movie there’s be no way in hell I’d watch yet I can read this stuff and it doesn’t bother me. It reminds me a lot of classic Dean Koontz whose novels I enjoy and happens to be another favorite author of mine.

Title: The Side-Yard Superhero
Author/website: Rick Niece
192 pages
Publisher: Synergy Books
Publication date: March ’09
Genre: Memoir
This charming book is peppered with down home goodness, days gone by, and the friendship between two very remarkable boys – Rick Niece and the side-yard superhero himself, Bernie Jones. There’s your typical cast of  eclectic small town characters. I laughed, I cried and was touched in that hidden, deep down place within my heart. An absolutely wonderful book about a time and place that really doesn’t exist anymore and the enduring meaning of friendship. This is the 1st book in a trilogy and I’m looking forward to books 2 & 3.

Title: Collision of Angels
Author/website: A Higher Call/Michael Carver
438 pages
Publisher: BookSurge Publishing
Publication date: December ’08
Genre: Faith-based fiction/thriller/suspense
OK so this book is an example of why I tend, at times, to be leery of reading faith-based fiction. It’s a tad heavy-handed along the preachiness lines. I didn’t finish reading only 52 pages (6 chapters).

Title: Dark Pursuit
Author/website: Brandilyn Collins
288 pages
Publisher: Zondervan
Publication date: December ’08
Genre: Faith-based fiction/thriller/suspense
This book is the exact opposite of Collision of Angels in terms of including faith in the storyline. If I hadn’t known this was a faith-based author and book I would have thought I was reading straight suspense. While I did figure out the killer’s sex I didn’t figure out who the killer was until revealed in the story line. I enjoyed this book and would read more from this new-to-me author.

Title: Stand the Storm
Author/website: Breena Clarke
336 pages
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Publication date: July ’08
Genre: Historical fiction
While I never quite got used to the vernacular of the characters this is a interesting story of a mother and son who work as bonds people in a tailor shop in Washington D.C. before and during the Civil War. They eventually buy their freedom and make a name for themselves.

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Favorite book: BoneMan’s Daughters
Least favorite book: False Colours/Collision of Angels

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Genres:
Memoir – 1
Women’s/contemporary fiction – 1
Contemporary/historical fiction – 5
Mystery – 4
Suspense/action/thriller – 5
Horror – 1

Total pages – 5,040

Challenges
eBook – 2
New author – 10
ARCs/Review copies – 13
’09 Pub – 7

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2009 progress
Total pages: 10,796
Books read: 32
DNFs: 5

Challenges
eBook – 8/10
New author – 24/65
ARCs/Review copies – 27
’09 Pub – 16/9 (Done!)

It’s time once again for The State of The Bookcase. Not much progress this month in clearing the shelves. Four books were added while 5 were read and found new homes. I’m holding steady and not tipping the scales either direction. February was a rather slow reading month as I only read seven books total but no DNFs.

Title: The Good Good Pig: The Extraordinary Life of Christopher Hogwood
Author/website: Sy Montgomery
272 pages
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Publication date: April ’07
Genre: Memoir
I really liked this one. A treat for animal lovers.

Title: True Colors
Author/website: Kristin Hannah
400 pages
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
Publication date: February ’09
Genre: Women’s fiction
Ms. Hannah is one of my favorite women’s fiction authors and she’s written another great book.

Title: Sarah’s Key
Author/website: Tatiana de Rosnay
320 pages
Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin
Publication date: September ’08
Genre: Contemporary/historical fiction
I can’t say enough about this book. Sarah’s story is one that you’ll remember long after you turn the last page.

Title: The Associate
Author/website: John Grisham
384 pages
Publisher: Doubleday
Publication date: January ’09
Genre: Fiction
Not one of his best but another one of my favorite authors and I’m still a fan.

Title: The Eyre Affair: A Thursday Next Novel
Author/website: Jasper Fforde
384 pages
Publisher: Penguin
Publication date: February ’03
Genre: Fiction
Interesting concept. Though not the book for me I did finish it.

Title: Fine Feathered Death (Kendra Ballantyne, Petsitter Mysteries, No. 3)
Author/website: Linda O. Johnson
272 pages
Publisher: Berkley
Publication date: May ’06
Genre: Mystery
A light-hearted cozy mystery series I read purely for fun.

Title: Peony in Love
Author/website: Lisa See
320 pages
Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks
Publication date: February ’08
Genre: Historical fiction
I loved it. If you’re a fan of Snow Flower and the Secret Fan you might also enjoy this book.

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Favorite book: Sarah’s Key
Least favorite book: The Eyre Affair

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Genres:
Memoir – 1
Women’s fiction – 1
Contemporary/historical fiction – 2
Fiction – 2
Mystery – 1

Total pages -2,249

Challenges
eBook – 2
New author – 3
ARCs/Review copies – 3
’09 Pub – 1

***
2009 progress
Total pages: 6,092
Books read: 17
DNFs: 3

Challenges
eBook – 6/10
New author – 14/65
ARCs/Review copies – 11
’09 Pub – 5/9

The President has The State of the Union, Governors have The State of the State, Mayors even have The State of the City. Me, I have The State of The Bookcase. Yes folks here it is the brand spanking new, most loved piece of the furniture in the Larsen home. Behold The Bookcase. Most of you are laughing right now because it holds a pitiful number of books compared to your toppling TBR piles. These are not all the books in house just the ones honored enough to make The Bookcase their home. Currently it’s offering shelter to my ARCs, requested books and those I deem worthy. As of Tuesday night it held 60 books. One, The Ride, is now off The Bookcase and looking for a new home. Today I’m starting Regina’s Closet: Finding My Grandmother’s Secret Journal so it’s temporarily housed here and will be moving soon to another, undisclosed location.

The State of The Bookcase will become a regular feature here at The Printed Page every month. So be sure and stop by checking out whether the books have increased or decreased.

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